REAL ESTATE

CHINA COMPANY EYES OFFICE SPACE

City officials are hoping that one of China’s largest real estate companies leases up to 1 million square feet of office space in Lower Manhattan, according to a report this week in Crain’s.

The company, Beijing Ventone Real Estate, is seeking a large New York commercial space to sublease offices to Chinese companies that want an American headquarters. Ventone will also provide secondary support services like conference facilities and translation. Although Ventone will look at both Midtown and downtown properties, city officials cited in the Crain’s story prefer Lower Manhattan, including 7 World Trade Center, the 1.7 million-square-foot office tower across the street from ground zero that is largely vacant.

According to the report, Ventone’s plan to build a New York business center still needs approvals from the Chinese government, which already has signed off on the concept of creating of an offshore company.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

ALBANY

EX-EMPLOYEE ACCUSES STATE SENATORS OF BIAS

A Schenectady man is suing the state Senate minority for $1.5 million, claiming Democratic senators conspired to replace him with a member of a racial minority group.

Joseph Maioriello, a 55-year-old white man and the former photographer and television coordinator for the state Senate, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Albany. In the lawsuit, Mr. Maioriello accuses the Senate minority of firing him in March 2003 because of his race and replacing him with a black man. The replacement worker was paid $48,000 annually – 40% more than Mr. Maioriello’s salary, according to the lawsuit.

– Associated Press

WELD SAYS HE DOES NOT SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE

While the former Massachusetts governor, William Weld, last year urged lawmakers there to accept same-sex marriage, and participated in a subsequent marriage ceremony of gay friends, he said he does not support it.

“I am not for gay marriage,” Mr. Weld told the Associated Press in his first extensive interview since announcing August 19 that he was seeking the 2006 Republican nomination for governor of New York. Mr. Weld said he sent a letter last year to Massachusetts lawmakers because he believed that once the Massachusetts Supreme Court had ruled on the issue, there was no choice but to accept same-sex marriage there. That is not the case elsewhere, he said.

– Associated Press

POLICE IDENTIFY HOSTAGE TAKER

ALBANY – Police have identified the man who held four people hostage in a bank before hanging himself Saturday afternoon. Police say 22-year-old Shawn Murphy of Albany walked into the city bank with several knives and demanded money at around 1 p.m.

Murphy bound and gagged three employees and one customer, holding them hostage in a five-hour standoff with police. Local police, state police, the FBI, and U.S. marshals negotiated with Murphy, who said he had a gun, Albany police spokesman James Miller said. Just after 6 p.m., the four hostages emerged from the front door of the bank. Authorities say Murphy was found dead inside the bank manager’s office, where he had hung himself.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

BABY BEATEN TO DEATH

A man was arrested for allegedly beating his girlfriend’s 18-month-old baby to death in Brooklyn. On Saturday at 9:45 a.m., the baby was found unconscious inside the man’s home on Rutland Avenue. The medical examiner’s office said he died from blunt impact to the head, torso, and extremities.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

THREE SHOT OUTSIDE HOUSE PARTY

One person was killed and two injured, one critically, when gunfire erupted in front of a house party in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn. Yesterday at 1:25 a.m., the three males were shot near 58th Street and Flatlands Avenue.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun